2019 wrap-up
I don’t know if Iowa particularly needed this win, but a ten-win season always seems significantly better than a nine-win one. Similarly, Iowa would have ended the year ranked regardless, but finishing in the Top 15 with two ranked wins just looks so much better than barely staying in the Top 25 with only one. Also, none of Iowa’s regular-season wins over Power 5 teams was particularly impressive. Ignoring a 20-point win over Northwestern and a 30-point over Rutgers, Iowa couldn’t win a single P5 game by double digits. A blowout win over a solid Pac 12 team changes every perception about this season. In the span of one blowout bowl win, Iowa went from being just another solid P5 team to being a legitimate good team in 2019.
2020 Impact
It’s hard to say what this means for Iowa in 2020. The Hawkeyes are never viewed as a program that “reloads.” Iowa rebuilds when it has to, and it looks like a rebuild is coming. Quarterback Nate Stanley is finally moving on, and the Hawkeyes are losing a lot of talent in the trenches. On top of that, Iowa gets Ohio State and Penn State in cross-divisional play–with both games on the road, in consecutive weeks. Ouch.
Expecting anything better than 8-4 from Iowa in 2020 might be a stretch. With a Top 15 season this year and the memory of the USC victory in voters’ minds, though, 8-4 in 2020 might be enough for another ranked season for Iowa yet again. That will tell us just how much benefit of the doubt the Hawkeyes built up with this victory.